A couple of years ago, it sure looked like sandwich chain Potbelly (PBPB) would be gobbled up in an active restaurant M&A environment. Venture capital firm Maveron, which backed the company in the early days, was looking to cash out its fund investors, and activist investors in the public markets were gearing up for a proxy fight.
Within 12 months' time, things were moving quite quickly, with then-CEO Aylwin Lewis announcing his retirement in May 2017 and a formal strategic review launched in August of that year after Ancora Capital accumulated stock and